Filipino Culture: Downside of Embedded Hospitality

By Gil delos Santos

The Philippines is one of the most culturally diversed countries. Filipinos are the most adaptive. The spaniards introduced christianity. Japan taught norm conformity. The Americans brought competitiveness. Colonization has supposed to bring great influences. However the Philippines today is a broken society. Behind christianity, corruption was co-introduced. Behind norm confirmity, greed grew. Behind competitiveness, it bred dependency.

With all influences, the most common Filipino trait is its hospitality. This is rooted in the practice of christianity, conformity, and the sense of competitiveness.

This embedded culture of hospitality now manifests negative impact on society more than how it was intended to work.

Over hospitality has produced lazy parents, greedy politicians, and self-entitled generation.

Lazy parents are too hospitable that find convenience in providing a mobile phone or tablet rather than to discipline children in tantrums. Most politicians steal people's money to be too hospitable to support the dependency and the nepo lifestyle of their privileged children and loved ones. Children of today's generation can't leave their nest because it's convenient to be under the parents' care: mommy and daddy takes care of the bills for them, feed them, and even pay for their gadgets and travels. When you're 18, you're supposed to start to find your own fortune already especially after finishing school. That's the reason why western countries are progressive and self made — because parents are not enablers...maliban lang sa parents na pinoy dun. Pero minority lang sila kaya wala gaano impact sa kabuuan. Sa Pilipinas, wasak! We're breeders of self-entitled and corrupt generation. Sa bahay at magulang nakasalalay ang disiplina at values ng anak. At kung hindi disciplinarian at visionary ang magulang natin, once we become adults, it's already on us.

At this point, nothing this generation impresses the self-mades with social media stunts. We Filipinos, young and old, should create a standard of our own, not what is set by the pretentious society. Happiness is real when you achieve it through own hardwork, not a given privilege.

Let's stop being so hospitable for convenience or to impress people — that's the new Filipino!

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